Most Common Letters in 5 Letter Words (Wordle Letter Frequency)
October 20, 2026 · Ali Ahmad
Quick answer: the most common letter in Wordle answers is E, followed by A, R, O and T. In the full list of 8,602 five-letter words, though, S comes first, because the dictionary is full of plurals that Wordle almost never uses as answers.
We counted every letter in every valid five-letter word in our dictionary, and in our 2,130 likely Wordle answers. Below are the full frequency tables, the most common letter for each of the five positions, and what the numbers mean for your first guess.
Most common letters in Wordle answers
This table shows how many of the 2,130 likely Wordle answers contain each letter at least once. It is the number that matters most when you choose a guess.
| Rank | Letter | Answers that contain it | Share of answers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | E | 997 | 46.8% |
| 2 | A | 884 | 41.5% |
| 3 | R | 807 | 37.9% |
| 4 | O | 660 | 31.0% |
| 5 | T | 625 | 29.3% |
| 6 | I | 613 | 28.8% |
| 7 | L | 577 | 27.1% |
| 8 | S | 566 | 26.6% |
| 9 | N | 531 | 24.9% |
| 10 | C | 412 | 19.3% |
| 11 | U | 364 | 17.1% |
| 12 | H | 348 | 16.3% |
| 13 | Y | 329 | 15.4% |
| 14 | D | 316 | 14.8% |
| 15 | P | 296 | 13.9% |
| 16 | M | 284 | 13.3% |
| 17 | G | 258 | 12.1% |
| 18 | B | 236 | 11.1% |
| 19 | F | 181 | 8.5% |
| 20 | K | 166 | 7.8% |
| 21 | W | 157 | 7.4% |
| 22 | V | 147 | 6.9% |
| 23 | X | 42 | 2.0% |
| 24 | Z | 34 | 1.6% |
| 25 | J | 29 | 1.4% |
| 26 | Q | 24 | 1.1% |
Nearly half of all answers have an E. Q, J, Z and X together appear in only about 6% of answers, so do not spend an early guess on them.
Most common letters in all 5 letter words
Across all 8,602 valid five-letter words, the order changes:
| Rank | Letter | Words that contain it |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | S | 46.3% |
| 2 | E | 45.1% |
| 3 | A | 40.6% |
| 4 | R | 31.0% |
| 5 | O | 29.3% |
| 6 | I | 28.1% |
| 7 | L | 25.2% |
| 8 | T | 24.2% |
| 9 | N | 21.4% |
| 10 | U | 18.5% |
S jumps to first place because 2,679 dictionary words end in S, most of them plurals such as CARDS or BOOKS. Only 63 of the 2,130 likely Wordle answers end in S. This is why letter-frequency lists built from a plain dictionary can mislead Wordle players: S is a great letter to start a word, but a weak one to end it.
Most common letter in each position
Where a letter sits matters as much as how often it appears. These are the top letters for each spot in likely Wordle answers:
| Position | Most common | 2nd | 3rd | 4th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st letter | S (316) | C (190) | B (152) | T (146) |
| 2nd letter | A (311) | O (285) | E (255) | R (239) |
| 3rd letter | A (263) | I (240) | O (201) | R (167) |
| 4th letter | E (290) | N (168) | R (160) | I (158) |
| 5th letter | E (406) | Y (270) | T (213) | R (198) |
- Most common first letter: S. About one answer in seven starts with it. See all 5 letter words starting with S and starting with C.
- Most common last letter: E, then Y. See 5 letter words ending in E and ending in Y.
- Vowels live in the middle: the 2nd and 3rd spots are mostly A, O, E and I.
What this means for your first Wordle guess
The five most common letters in Wordle answers are E, A, R, O and T, and together they spell ORATE. In our ranking of all 8,602 starting words, ORATE comes 2nd. It leaves about 54 possible answers on average after the first guess.
| Starting word | Rank (of 8,602) | Answers left on average |
|---|---|---|
| RAISE | 1 | 53.1 |
| ORATE | 2 | 54.4 |
| IRATE | 3 | 55.1 |
| ARISE | 4 | 56.6 |
| STARE | 19 | 62.2 |
| TRACE | 25 | 63.1 |
| SLATE | 40 | 65.2 |
| CRANE | 49 | 66.6 |
| ADIEU | 1,578 | 117.3 |
Common letters are not the whole story. RAISE edges out ORATE because its letters split the possible answers into more, smaller groups, partly thanks to S, which ORATE does not test at all. But the pattern is clear: a guess made of five different, common letters beats a guess full of rare letters or vowels. See the full list in Best Wordle Starting Words, Ranked by Data.
Repeated letters are common
One in three likely Wordle answers (709 of 2,130, or 33%) uses at least one letter twice, as in SPEED, ROBOT or GEESE. If you have run out of new letters to try, a repeated letter is often the answer. The Wordle Solver handles repeated letters the same way Wordle does.
Least common letters in 5 letter words
The rarest letters are Q, J, Z and X. Only 24 likely answers contain a Q, and only 29 contain a J. Common answers with them include QUICK, EQUAL, MAJOR, ENJOY, PIZZA, PRIZE, EXACT and INDEX. When you do find one of these letters, the list of possible answers gets very short. See 5 letter words starting with Q. Words with them are also worth the most in Scrabble: Q and Z score 10 points each, J and X score 8.
Find words with the letters you have
- 5 letter word finder: enter known, included and excluded letters
- Wordle Solver: possible answers and the best next guess
- Wordle Game Analyzer: see how good each of your guesses was
- 5 letter words starting with A and starting with T
- 5 letter words ending in T and ending in R
- 5 letter words with the most vowels
Frequently asked questions
What is the most common letter in Wordle?
E. It appears in 46.8% of likely Wordle answers. After E come A, R, O and T.
What is the most common first letter in Wordle answers?
S. It starts 316 of the 2,130 likely answers. C, B and T come next.
What is the most common last letter in Wordle?
E, followed by Y. S is rare at the end of Wordle answers because the game avoids plain plurals.
Which letters are least common in 5 letter words?
Q, J, Z and X. Each appears in less than 3% of five-letter words and in about 2% of Wordle answers or fewer.
What word uses the five most common Wordle letters?
ORATE uses E, A, R, O and T, the five most common letters in Wordle answers. It is the 2nd best starting word in our ranking.
About this data
All counts come from the WordMivo word list: 8,602 valid five-letter words from the public-domain ENABLE dictionary, with offensive words removed, and 2,130 likely Wordle answers estimated from word frequency (not the official New York Times list). “Answers that contain it” counts each word once even if the letter appears twice. You can download the full dataset for free under CC BY 4.0, and read how it was built on our methodology page.